Siege of Mirandola (1321)

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Siege of Mirandola (1321)

The siege was fought between the lordship of Mirandola, ruled by Francesco I Pico, and the Mantuan lord Duke Passerino (Rinaldo dei Bonacolsi). After years of shifting alliances and power struggles, Passerino arrested Francesco I Pico and his two sons on 27 November 1321. The Pico family were imprisoned in Castel d’Ario, where they died in the dungeons.

Duke Passerino began the siege of the Pico castle on 28 November 1321. The siege lasted about a month, and on 31 December 1321 the castle was conquered and razed; the surrounding moat was leveled.

In 1328, Niccolò Pico, allied with the Gonzaga and Della Scala (who had taken Mantua), avenged his father by imprisoning Passerino’s sons and grandsons in the same tower and starving them to death. Mirandola became a Gonzaga dominion with Mantua from 16 August 1328. It was only returned to the Pico family by Emperor Charles IV on 23 December 1354, when Francesco II Pico became lord.